Alarm systems may include one or more motion detection systems configured to identify motion in a detection zone. In many instances, such motion detection systems may use a power supply, such as a battery. Motion detection systems may utilize a processor to periodically analyze the output of a motion detection sensor. For example, a processor may be configured to analyze the output of a passive infrared (PIR) sensor at a specified frequency. The processor consumes a relatively large amount of power when actively analyzing the output of the motion detection sensor, relative to the amount of power consumed by the processor in a sleep state.
The present inventors have recognized that since many motion detection systems run on batteries of limited capacity, it is desirable to reduce the power consumed by such systems. The present inventors have therefore determined that since a significant amount of the total power consumption of a motion detection system is consumed by the microprocessor, it would be desirable to increase the amount of time that a processor is in a low-power, or sleep state, by increasing the interval of time between each sample and/or increasing the number of samples stored in a memory between each analysis by the processor. Accordingly, the systems and methods described below may be used to reduce the power consumption of any of a wide variety of environmental sensor systems, including motion detection systems.